Defenders Of The Faith, le forum Metal

BLACKFINGER, the new project featuring ex-TROUBLE vocalist Eric Wagner, has released its first single, "All The Leaves Are Brown", via Dark Star Records. The track was produced by Vincent Wojno (MACHINE HEAD, KREATOR, TROUBLE), who is currently mixing BLACKFINGER's full-length debut, to be made available in 2012.

BLACKFINGER is:

Eric Wagner - Vocals
Doug Hakes - Guitar
Rico Bianchi - Guitar
Ben Smith - Bass
Larry Piatz - Drums

BLACKFINGER, the band featuring former TROUBLE vocalist Eric Wagner, has signed a worldwide deal with Germany's Church Within Records. The group's self-titled debut album will be released on CD and vinyl by the end of the year. A full tour in the support of the effort is in the works.

A new BLACKFINGER promo video from Kathy Reeves Productions can be seen below.

As previously reported, Dark Star Records will handle the digital release of the BLACKFINGER debut. The CD, with its many peaks and valleys of heaviness and melancholy, along with Wagner's signature vocals, will mark the singer's first recorded output since TROUBLE's 2007 release, "Simple Mind Condition".

In a recent interview with Metal Assault, Wagner stated about the BLACKFINGER LP, " It hasn't been an easy record to do. There were a lot of things that detoured me from working on it, personal things and stuff. I don't know. I get sick of hearing it and I have to take a break from it."

He continued: "I've been working on it for four, five years. There was the original lineup, which is different from today's lineup, I blew that one up because it wasn't working and I went back to writing and recording.

"In the past, we had a producer there, so all I had to do was concentrate on singing and writing lyrics, whereas with this one, I had to do everything. I had an engineer that would give me tonnes and sounds, but as far as recording, writing and arranging it, I had to be there. Sometimes I got a little sick of it. I had to walk away for a while.

"I'm really proud of it. It's heavy, it's dark. Heavier than I thought it would be, actually. It's definitely an album where you sit down and listen to the whole thing."

"Blackfinger" track listing:

01. I Am Jon
02. Yellowood
03. Why God
04. On Tuesday Morning
05. As Long As I'm With You
06. Here Comes The Rain
07. My Many Colored Days
08. For One More Day
09. All The Leaves Are Brown
10. Til Death Do Us Part
11. Keep Fallin' Down

BLACKFINGER, the band led by former TROUBLE singer Eric Wagner, will release its new album, "When Colors Fade Away", on September 15 via M-Theory Audio.

Renowned and still cherished for the classic material he recorded with Chicago's TROUBLE for over two decades, Wagner has in recent years been focusing on a couple other promising new bands in a similar vein, including BLACKFINGER. Now relocated to Pittsburgh, Eric is joined in the new BLACKFINGER lineup by another respected name in doom metal circles, guitarist Terry Weston of DREAM DEATH/PENANCE.

Featuring photos from Matt Bluejay and graphic design by Al Oaks, "When Colors Fade Away" is a striking and artistic package with a full color twelve-page CD booklet and a four-page vinyl insert. Vinyl limited to 400 copies of blue/black marble.

Pre-order now at http://www.m-theoryaudio.com/store.

"Colors were a common theme throughout the first record… I think it was a reference for life, or maybe it was hope," explains Eric Wagner. "What happens when colors start to fade or you feel like all hope is lost?

"I think there comes a time in everyone's life when you need to confront your dark side in order to get to the light.

"When I saw the photographs of the old abandoned funeral home by Matt Bluejay, I thought it would make the perfect album cover for 'When Colors Fade Away', and the start of the journey to feel good about oneself again."

M-Theory Audio is the new label recently launched by Marco Barbieri, the former president of Century Media Records, whose previous experience includes Nuclear Blast and Metal Blade. Joining Marco in this adventure are colleagues whose past experience includes work for labels like Century Media, Prosthetic, Victory and Epitaph. The label's roster includes Bay Area thrash outfit CULTURAL WARFARE, Las Vegas prog/power metal band SICOCIS, Sacramento headbangers BLESSED CURSE, Southern California's pagan death metallers HELSOTT, nomadic folk metal band TENGGER CAVALRY, female-fronted symphonic metal band GRAVESHADOW and Nor Cal's death/metalcore band APOTHESARY.

"Eric Wagner is a true artist, talent and storyteller," says Barbieri. "I've spent the last 34 years listening to classic tales weaved by this man; and he is truly one of my favorite vocalists. Along the way I've had the pleasure of working with Eric and TROUBLE while at Century Media during their 'Plastic Green Head' album cycle and even had his other band, THE SKULL, headline one of the Doom In June festivals. Now our co-operation and friendship continues and I am fortunate to release the new and phenomenal BLACKFINGER album."

Read more at http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/former ... ZgycLB9.99

Cruz Del Sur Music will release legendary former TROUBLE singer Eric Wagner's posthumous solo album, "In The Lonely Light Of Mourning", in March 2022.

Recorded at Alpha Sound Services and Aardvark Recording, "In The Lonely Light Of Mourning" was completed and delivered to Cruz Del Sur Music a month before Eric's untimely passing. Initially scheduled for a November 2021 release, Cruz Del Sur Music — in cooperation with Eric's manager, Mike Smith — agreed to move the release date to March 2022 to give it the attention it deserves.

"It has been a great honor to have the chance to work with Eric," says Cruz Del Sur Music owner Enrico Leccese. "He has been a reference in my life since, as a fan, I bought his TROUBLE albums back in the 1980s. I must give WHILE HEAVEN WEPT's Tom Phillips 100 percent credit for Cruz Del Sur Music being able to release Eric's solo album. Eric really put all himself, his passion, his deepest emotions and his skills into this release. I must also thank Mike and Ron Holzner for the extremely mature talk we had after Eric's passing. His loss has been a tragic event and we hope that this album gives justice to his career."

The solo endeavor — a longtime goal of Eric's — serves as a fitting testament to one of doom metal's most respected voices. Eric tapped former TROUBLE/current BLACKFINGER drummer David Snyder to help him assemble the album's eight cuts. Along the way, Eric brought in some of his favorite musicians as guests — including past and present members of TROUBLE, BLACKFINGER, THE SKULL, LID, PENTAGRAM, DEATH ROW and PLACE OF SKULLS.

"In The Lonely Light Of Mourning" travels down Eric's hallowed, familiar doom roads, flanked by melancholic acoustic guitar arrangements. It makes for an album of color, depth and heaviness that will please fans of Eric's work. "I'd say this album is an amalgamation of TROUBLE, BLACKFINGER, LID and THE SKULL," says Phillips. "There's a little bit of each all swirled together. Basically, there's a little something for everyone!"

"He was excited about the songs," adds Snyder. "He and I worked on this project for a little over four years. It took that long, mostly because we did it over the phone. Either he would be in Chicago or New Mexico, and I'm in West Virginia, so I'd send him demo riffs, and if he liked something, he'd give me arrangement ideas, and I'd re-demo to fit his vision to place the lyrics. I already miss the process of working with him! Before Eric left for the last THE SKULL tour this summer, he told me about the record and said, 'It jams. I'm turning it into Cruz.'"

Smith says that if Eric was ever going to do a solo record, it would need to involve the people he's worked with — and some he hasn't. The wealth of guest musicians explains why he was particularly excited about having a "family reunion" that tapped into nearly every era of his storied career.

"We have guests representing every band Eric has worked with over the years, and even extended family member Victor Griffin, which really brings things full circle," says Smith. "This was not the original plan by any means, but as the process started to unfold, it became apparent that this was exactly how it should be. How it was meant to be."

Eric's THE SKULL and former TROUBLE bandmate Ron Holzner, guests on the album. Ron says "In The Lonely Light Of Mourning" was "more personal" to him than his BLACKFINGER and LID output, two albums that enabled the frontman to work outside of the boundaries of TROUBLE.

"The LID record [1997's 'In The Mushroom'] was a break from TROUBLE and his first tastes of freedom. The BLACKFINGER records were more of a sideband to express himself differently than THE SKULL. It's been a long journey lyrically for Eric and his story was coming towards the end. He sensed his time was short. The new record was his career coming full circle, in a sense. He included musicians from all his records and never intended this record to be a band. It was more a solo record than anything he ever did before. He needed to share his journey since this record was to be the end — he was contemplating retirement. The new THE SKULL record would be the epitaph to his story."

Eric's untimely passing this past August left behind a musical legacy that has influenced countless bands while providing comfort and solace for those impacted by his lyrics. Alongside CANDLEMASS, TROUBLE is arguably the most impactful post-BLACK SABBATH doom band. Their first four albums are undisputed classics, making Eric the solitary voice for the downtrodden and disaffected.

"There's no doubt that he will be rightly remembered as one of the most iconic voices of metal — not just doom metal considering he had the power to traverse anything he sang over from psychedelic to somber, from acoustic tenderness to bone-crushing metal," says Phillips. "Of course, he'll always be tied to the legacy of TROUBLE and thus, considered by nearly everyone — including myself — as one of the founding fathers of the doom metal genre. But for those who knew him, we'll also never forget his laid-back personality, sense of humor and 'Eric-isms.' It's a staggering and totally unnecessary loss, but he lived by his own rules and spent 2021 doing all of the things he loved doing the most, so there's some solace in that."

"He did what he wanted, said what he wanted, lived like he wanted and wrote what he wanted…his way," says Holzner. "He touched a lot of souls with his life and death."

"He was a friend to everyone he met," adds Snyder. "He always would hang out with fans and, through his music, helped a lot of people through tough times, including myself. His lyrics were always thought-provoking and his voice was one of a kind. When you heard it, you knew it was Eric Wagner! Ultimately, his legacy to me is his work with TROUBLE. I am eternally grateful to have been close to him at times, to have finished this record and to have worked with what many call the 'Godfather of Doom.'"

"Eric was a dear friend, and I miss him immensely," closes Smith. "This solo album became so much more than we initially expected, and I hope fans will be able to listen with open hearts and realize how lucky we all were to have Eric in our lives.

When Eric and I signed off on the album back in July and delivered it to Cruz Del Sur Music, Eric said something I will never forget: 'If this were to be my last one, it's a perfect final chapter to the story.'"

"In The Lonely Light Of Mourning" track listing:

01. Rest In Place
02. Maybe Tomorrow
03. Isolation
04. If You Lost It All
05. Strain Theory
06. Walk With Me To The Sun
07. In The Lonely Light Of Mourning
08. Wish You Well